Standard Lemma guide

isoprene

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • UK: /ˈaɪsə(ʊ)pɹiːn/
  • US: /ˈaɪsəˌpɹin/

1

noun

Meaning 1

An unsaturated hydrocarbon, C5H8, that is readily polymerized; natural rubber (caoutchouc) is cis-1,4-polyisoprene, and trans-1,4-polyisoprene is present in gutta-percha and balata; it is the structural basis for the terpenes.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, organic-chemistry, physical-sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Coined (1860) by British chemist C. G. Williams, from iso- (“equal; different, isomeric”) + pr(op)- (“three carbon prefix”) + -ene (“alkene suffix”). A misnomer.

Across languages

Translations

20 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: isoprè — isoprene
  • Chinese Mandarin: 異戊二烯 /异戊二烯 (yìwù'èrxī) — isoprene
  • Finnish: isopreeni — isoprene
  • French: isoprène — isoprene
  • German: Isopren — isoprene
  • Greek: ισοπρένιο (isoprénio) — isoprene
  • Hebrew: איזופרן — isoprene
  • Hungarian: izoprén — isoprene
  • Icelandic: ísópren — isoprene
  • Irish: isipréin — isoprene
  • Italian: isoprene — isoprene
  • Japanese: イソプレン (isopuren) — isoprene
  • Korean: 이소프렌 (isopeuren) — isoprene
  • Lithuanian: izoprenas — isoprene
  • Malay: isoprena — isoprene
  • Polish: izopren — isoprene
  • Portuguese: isopreno — isoprene
  • Romanian: izopren — isoprene
  • Russian: изопре́н (izoprén) — isoprene
  • Spanish: isopreno — isoprene